[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915) › v2.c14.4.2 # Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.2 Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c14.4.2 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c14.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.2) A delightful account of the wise oracular utterances which are made especially by the swarm of aunts, godmothers, and woman-neighbours about a supposed magical being of this kind, is given by Juho Reijonen, a pleasing Finnish novelist of our day, in his \*Vaihdokas\* (The Changeling). Indeed, Żmigrodski states: "Witch and lying-in woman are in Aryan tradition almost one and the same" (\*Die Mutter\*, p. 177). The death of a woman in child-bed is always a magically dangerous misfortune in India (see e.g. \*Anthropos\*, vi, 872 f.; vii, 85 f.; iv, 68); she becomes, at least in the belief of some primitive tribes, a very evil spirit, called Churel or Chorail, which wanders about with the feet turned backwards. Billington, \*Woman in India\*, p. 100; Crooke, \*Things Indian\*, Lond., 1906, p. 131; \*Popul. Relig.\*, etc., i, 269-274; \*Anthropos\*, iv, 679 (Pahariya); vii, 649, 659 (Khond); \*Zeitschr. für Ethnol.\*, Bd. 6, p. 344. Cp. Ploss-Bartels, ii, 579 ff.; Żmigrodski, 148; E. H. Meyer, \*Mythol. d. Germanen\*, 31; 56; 101 f.; cp. 43; A. Jeremias, \*Allgemeine Religionsgesch.\* 2, p. 53 (among the old Babylonians). In the belief of the Urau they are clothed in white, and have a pleasing face, but a coal-black back. \*Zschr. f. Ethnol.\*, Bd. 4, p. 344 (after Dalton). Like those who have met an accidental death, women that die in child-bed are buried by the Nāgas in the jungle without any rites. - [Previous: v2.c14.4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.1) - [Next: v2.c14.4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.3) - [Up: v2.c14.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.meyer-1915.v2.c14.4.2) · Pramāṇa